Mind & Mood

What You Should Know About Your Appetite

Hungry all the time?Here are 10 surprising facts that could explain why we eat too much

By The Weekly | May 10, 2017

Artificial Sweeteners Make You Eat More

The brain has a hard time understanding the fact that artificial sweeteners deliver a big hit of sweetness minus the energy, or kilojoules. The result? It triggers a process that increases your appetite to encourage you to eat more food – it’s the brain’s way of making your energy intake match the sweetness it has detected.

You Can Satisfy Your Appetite With Less Food Than You Think

Next time you’re hungry for a snack, halve the portion. Testing that theory, food psychology researchers proved that when only small snacks are available, you’ll eat 400 fewer kilojoules than when there’s a large portion in front of you, but you’ll feel just as satisfied 15 minutes after eating.

A Bad Night’s Sleep Is The Enemy

A lack of sleep increases the body’s production of a natural appetite stimulant. Call 2-AG, it works by regulating the enjoyment you get from food – the more of it that’s circulating in your blood stream, the more pleasurable eating becomes. It helps explain why sleep-deprived people find it much harder to resist snacks like biscuits, chocolate and chips not long after they’ve eaten a meal.

Stress Plays A Role

Many women say their appetite changes when they’re stressed, and for 62 percent, it increases. The type of food you crave might change too – researchers shows stress makes ‘comfort foods’ like pizza and ice-cream more appealing. One explanation is that sugar- and fat-rich foods may dampen down the body’s stress response, so we may use them to ‘self medicate’ in response to emotional upsets.

Exercise Fights Appetite

So do something physically active after lunch to avoid that mid-afternoon snack. The best choice is aerobic exercise, because it affects the levels of two gut hormones, boosting peptide YY and lowering ghrelin. That’s a combination that supresses appetite, and the effect lasts for two hours.

There’s An Appetite Contril Centre In Your Brain

It’s not the hormones and substances released by your gut that influence appetite – a brain chemical called serotonin plays a key role, too. Serotonin activates neurons that curb appetite and blocks those that increase appetite. To increase your serotonin, have a massage – your levels will be 28 percent higher afterwards.

Social Media Food Snaps ‘Ruin our Appetite’

Looking forward to dinner tonight? Don’t look at social media if your friends like to post lots of food pics. Seeing too many foodie photos zaps your appetite and makes your next meal less enjoyable to eat, say researchers. Food photos increase something called satiation, where you become tired of the food you eating – or looking at.

Make Sure You Can Hear Yourself Eat

The noises you make, like crunching and chewing, lower your ‘real time’ appetite. When you can’t hear those noises, you’ll end up eating about 25 percent more food as the result. Dubbed the ‘crunch effect’, it works as a sensory cue to remind you of how much food you’re putting in your mouth, say researchers. So turn the sound down the TV when you’re eating, and avoid noisy restaurants.

Don’t Make Big Decisions When You’re Hungry

When you need to eat, levels of the hormone ghrelin peak and, as well as stimulating appetite, gherlin temporarily dulls areas of the brain involved in impulse control. The reuslt? You’ll find it harder to make a sensible, rational choice. So delay any big decisions until after you’ve eaten something.

Almonds Are An Appetite-Busting Snack

To keep your appetite under control, eat 40g of almonds a day. When people did that as part of US study, their hunger levels and appetite at mealtimes fell significantly after four weeks. And, despite the nuts providing an extra 1000KJ a day, the participants’ weight remainded unchanged. Researchers say this may be thanks to the healthy fats, protein and fibre nuts provide.